San Felix to Santa Fe

The weather on Monday was the best for a long time (and when the weathers good you gotta go!) so with a few hours sleep under my belt, I dragged myself out of bed and headed up to San Felix again. The right decision, as a load of pilots - tandems and solos - were off for a cross country flight to Sante Fe de Antioquia, in the next valley along behind San Felix.

Had loads of time to get ready, but when it came to the get go I fluffed my launch, faffed around and by the time I got off, most of the pilots were well on their way to base. So I found myself in the all too familiar position of playing catch up. Took a while to get a good climb-out but was soon on my way and only just behind a couple of other pilots - so had someone to follow at least!

Going cross!

Base was about 3200m so only 700m above the take off and the plateau behind. The first waypoint was a big hill on the other side of the plateau which I got too with a reasonable amount of height and found a climb without too much seaching. I felt a little smug at seeing my 2 flying buddies land out, however it meant I was left to forge my own way onward. Thankfully there were a few more pilots I could see in the distance to lead the way. I had fun playing with the clouds and maximising my height before continuing the journey, now on the edge of the Sante Fe valley, and hopping from spur to spur, working north and cross wind. Very sinky air between the spurs but thermals were reasonably easy to find and plenty of the gallizanos around to help out. The thermals were generally quite big (between 1-3 m/s up) but seemed to peter out well before base so getting high again was hard. Anyway, I thought was doing all right and was keeping up with the gliders in front, mostly with more height.

Heading towards Santa Fe 

As the day was progressing however, the sky was starting to overdevelop and looked ominously dark out in the distance. I watched the gliders ahead scratch up the ridge side before getting a great climb and then heading across the valley to what I then realised was Sante Fe. Soon after I got to the same ridge they'd scratched up with more height, but found a lot of sink and little good lift. With the sky getting darker and with less height to play with, I gave a little more attention to possible landing zones.... there are a lot of trees in this part of Colombia!

The options were certainly not abundant so I headed out towards the valley to give myself some choice. Watching a few plumes of smoke meander upwards in the middle of the valley I was surprised to then find myself stopped in my tracks by a strong and rough wind as I tried to push away from the ridge. It was definitely a squeaky bum moment as I quickly re-assessed my options, but eventually got away from the ridge and changed tack so I wasn't heading straight into wind. The wind was about 30km/h (so I was making no headway without bar) and losing height quickly, I settled for a big green clearing in the trees to land in. The landing was a little rough and as I came down I realised my nice green clearing was in fact big, shoulder height bushes! But my landing was fine and I found a bit of a clearing to pack my glider up. Then I just had to find my way out....

The perfect landing spot... (looked better from above)

A few scaled fences, river crossings and an hour and half's walking got me on to the Santa Fe - Medellin road which I made just as it got dark. Another hour waiting on the roadside and I was relieved to get on a bus back to Medellin.

All in I managed a 40km flight and was only about 5km short of Santa Fe - not too bad for my first attempt!

Medellin

Finished my spanish lessons last Friday which I was quite happy to do so. I had 2 teachers for my private lessons; one was excellent and the other not quite so, so a week was enough. And obviously I'm pretty much fluent now anyway.

On Friday afternoon I did a little bit of voluntary work the school organise and a group of us went and hung out with the kids at a refuge type place, chatting and playing football.

The weekend turned into a long fiesta but got a lovely late afternoon flight in on the Sunday. Smooth thermic conditions and a beautiful evening. A bit too nice as I ended up landing in the dark again, but kept my cool this time and got down fine.

y así comienza...

Just under 2 weeks in to my year off and I find myself with the time and inclination to start blogging...

Its been a fairly un-eventful 2 weeks. I landed in Bogota exhausted after a casual few leaving drinks in London, paid about 3 times the going rate for a taxi from the airport, but arrived safely into a nice family run hostel in the Candelaria area in Bogota.

Looking down on Bogota

Bogota is high (2640m high to be exact) and you notice the altitude. It was also delightfully cool at night but hot during the day. The most interesting thing about Bogtoa is the street art. Its everywhere, its brilliant and the city have embraced it. Saw a lot of the city on a bike tour, run by an entertaining American (a former journalist) and including all the culturally significant sights such as a ride (by bicycle) in the red light district and a game of tajo - Colombias explosive, official national sport. Otherwise I was mainly drinking beer and aguardiente; Colombia's own aniseed spirit offering. There was one surprise worth nothing, when I happened to meet Mike Sutton (formerly of SSE and last seen in Glasgow about 3 years ago) hanging out in a tajo hall.

Candelaria

Rapping for the Bogota bike tourists

Tajo hall

On Friday (9th Jan) I headed to Medellin; a 10 hour bus ride, which combined with a hangover and a beautiful ride through the mountains was actually reasonably enjoyable.

There was a young German acro pilot staying in my hostel so on Sat I headed up to San Felix with him to go flying. Medellin is in a lovely location, nestled in the valley and flanked by mountains on both sides. San Felix is up on the mountainside to the north west, overlooking the city.

I didnt get off to the best of starts. My lines had somehow become looped through one another and it took me a good 2 hours to untangle them. Lightweight unsheathed lines definitely have their disadvantages. The flight was very pleasant however. Abundant lift and lots of gallizanos (small vultures) cruising about. I've quickly learn that the hard bit however is getting down and the landing area down on the valley floor is pretty turbulent. If you overshoot, the ground drops off steeply and you then meet the edge of town; so not really an option. I duly (almost!) overshot, but managed to get down with a few meters to spare. Everyone else (albeit mostly tandems) were toplanding. Easy to see why.

First flight from San Felix (the sky hasn't looked that good since)

Sat night is the big night out in the city and we had our own local guide to help us get stuck into the Colombian rum. Sunday was therefore a write off but had a nice flight on Monday with a much more comfortable landing.

Tuesday saw me start some much needed spanish lessons - the main reason I had come to Medellin - and I´ve enjoyed having the time to study something useful (it'll hopefully be even more enjoyable when I start to understand things!).

Based on my limited experience, the weather hasn't looked that great for flying since I arrived (it does however seem to be flyable most days - but maybe not that good for xc?) , but on Friday afternoon after school I chanced it and despite a rain shower on the way up, headed to San Felix for a late afternoon flight. I met a friendly local instructor, Luisito, on the bus ride up and managed to have a lively conversation through my very limited Spanish - It's much easier when you know the topic! His small house on the mountainside is replete with its own take-off area and I eventually left his hospitality behind and took to the air for an early evening flight. After take-off I was surprised at the lack of lift and was heading straight down when I took a nice thermal close to the landing area and climbed most of the way back up the ridge. Watching the lights come on across Medellin was delightful, but with the darkness encroaching I had to work hard to get back down again and the air around the landing zone was buoyant and rough. I didn't judge it well, got my approach all wrong, and ended up coming down with a very heavy landing. Thought I'd got away with a few small grazes but by the time I arrived back at my hostel, my ankle had swollen considerably.

Luisito!

Nice landing field

Not badly sprained I think, but sprained none the less; so here I am with the time and inclination to start a blog!

Bar that minor mishap, my initial impressions of Colombia have been excellent. The people are super friendly and most places have felt very safe. Medellin has much more of a European feel to it than Bogota - it even has an efficient metro system. Two weeks in though and all I've seen is cities; so itching to get out and about, do some paragliding and see some of this beautiful country! Another week of spanish classes before I get on to that however.